Category: Monnow Valley Recording Studio

We are on Severn FM again tonight and C.A.S retweeted one of my tweets. Here he is in Monnow Valley Recording studio with me – on my t-shirt- the legend that is Count Arthur Strong.
I hear he plays the trombone, so if the Tredegar Town Band need a deputy I shall see if he will oblige. Imagine what that would do for our profile. I wonder if he would be in our next video…I shall ask…Probably will not have time, what with him being such a doyen of light entertainment and all. …if he is to busy I shall ask the lady with the lovely hat.

About 2 weeks ago, we were listening to one of the tracks for the new album and Gitika wistfully remarked how she would love to hear a Brass band at the end. Well one thing lead to another and two weeks later an octet from the magnificent Tredegar Town Band arrived at Monnow valley and played on sections of 4 of the track for album number 2. Snippets of video of the band in the studio conducted by Gitika….when the album is released you will be able to name those tunes ! A really exciting session day.

So we went back to Monnow Valey Valley Studios for the last three days of March and wrote and recorded 4 new songs. One is a melancholic lullaby about letting go of a dying parent. The title was inspired by a Peggy Seeger song, Love Call Me Home, at the moment the working title for this song is ‘Love Called You Home’. Would love you to have a listen.

Hi! This is Official Guest Blogger Curtis ElVidge. I’m the assistant engineer at Monnow Valley Studio, the place where 3 Bucket Jones began, and the place they’re at right now, writing and recording. I’m here to give you the lowdown on what Gitika, Andy and Garry are up to.

The Author and the Artists at Work

The band have been in the studio since sunday, composing and recording together all day every day. In the first four days they have written five songs almost entirely from scratch, ranging from unfinished ambient sketches to victorian horror movie themes – all via psychedelic folk of course.

I’ve been impressed by the variety of instruments they’ve taken with them as well – a lot of which fall in the “cruel and unusual” category. We’ve got electronic tampuras, fretted violins and a hurdy-gurdy. Even better is they actually know how to play them. Garry also has an impressive set of software synths and it’s great to see a band so rooted in folk so happy with the electronics.

But that’s far from the only trick Garry has up his sleeves. The guy is also a pretty fearsome chef, with my highlight being the local sausage and parma ham toad-in-the-hole. A fresh twist on an old classic!

We met, we wrote and recorded the first version of this song almost as strangers in one day of a songwriters’ retreat run by BASCA at Monnow Valley Recording Studio, near Monmouth Wales, and in the next 24 hours decided to form a band and make an album, which is so nearly done.

This is the first track on the album, as it was the first one we wrote together.